More than 2,000 writers, playwrights and poets will stage readings of their works around the country Oct. 29 for Writer's Harvest, a benefit to fight hunger and poverty sponsored by Share Our Strength.

The Writer's Harvest readings will take place in more than 500 bookstores, schools and community centers nationwide. Featured speakers include:

• Tobias Wolff at Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Andre Dubus at St. Paul's Cathedral, Boston
• Jimmy Carter at Barnes & Noble, Skokie, Ill.
• Frank McCourt at Barnes & Noble, New York
• Richard Russo at the Camden Public Library, Camden, Maine
• Reynolds Price at Barnes & Noble, Cary, N.C.

All donations received from the Writer's Harvest event will go to poverty and hunger programs around the country. Participating Barnes & Noble book stores will also host readings and donate a percentage of that day's sales to Share Our Strength.

"We Are What We Ate," a new anthology of stories about food by authors including Richard Russo, Julia Alvarez, Gita Mehta, Gish Jen and Charles Baxter, will be released the same day. Revenues will benefit Share our Strength.

Washington-based Share Our Strength has distributed more than $50 million in grants to more than 1,000 anti-hunger and anti-poverty groups in the U.S. and abroad since it was founded in 1984.